Click to open report In February, 2015, in the case of
Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), the Supreme Court of
Canada struck down the criminal prohibition of physician assisted suicide
and physician administered euthanasia, but suspended the ruling for one year
to give federal and provincial governments an opportunity to draft new laws
that conform to the decision. In January, 2016, the Court granted an
extension of the suspension to 6 June, 2016. In the interim, it
allowed euthanasia to proceed in Quebec under provincial legislation in
force there, and allowed individuals seeking physician assisted suicide or
euthanasia elsewhere to apply to a superior court to obtain authorization.
A special joint committee of the Canadian House of Commons and Senate
began work in January and produced a first report in the last week of
February. With respect to freedom of conscience and religion, the
report recommends that physicians unwilling to provide euthanasia or
assisted suicide for reasons of conscience be compelled to find someone
willing to do so. It also recommends that all publicly funded
facilities - not excluding objecting denominational institutions - be
compelled to provide euthansia and assisted suicide.
The main report is followed by a dissenting report signed by four
Conservative (C) Members of Parliament. The dissenting report erroneously states, "Quebec physicians
are free to act according to their conscience," and recommends the
"Quebec model" that purports to accommodate freedom of conscience and
religion. The Quebec model
has been rejected by many objecting physicians because it requires them to
become parties to homicide by referring a patient to an administrator,
who will arrange for euthanasia.
A supplementary opinion filed by two New Democrat (NDP) Members of
Parliament states that legislation "must ensure that every eligible
patient’s right to access medical aid in dying is upheld, and protect
any healthcare professional who objects for reasons of conscience from
disciplinary action." However, the authors of the supplementary
opinion do not dissent from the main report, so this must be understood
to mean that objecting physicians who refuse to arrange for someone to
kill patients or help them commit suicide should be
disciplined.
In Canada, the federal government has no jurisdiction over the
regulation of medical practice or the operation of hospitals. This
means that, if the Committee's recommendations are to be implemented,
provincial governments and medical regulators will be left to deal with
the most contentious issue: compelling unwilling physicians, health care
workers and health care facilities to become parties to homicide and
suicide.
Committee proceedings have not been
transcribed verbatim. On important points, transcripts on
parliamentary web pages should be
checked against the video to ensure accuracy. Edited video transcripts
provided here have been checked against the edited videos.
French language videos and transcripts can be found by using the links
below to access the parliamentary English language page, and then clicking
on the French language icon or link at the upper right corner of the
parliamentary page.
Groups and individuals were heard during 10 Committee meetings, which are
listed and outlined below. The outline of each meeting includes: